1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for recording data which records digital or analog data such as broadcast programs, packaged software of musical CDs, or images or computer programs prepared by individuals.
2. Description of the Related Art
So far, when a user makes a reservation for the recording of a program to record a broadcast program using a video recorder, the person must carry out time setting using information from other media such as newspapers or magazines or using the EPG (Electronic Program Guide) which is put out by broadcasting stations for the convenience of users for the reservation using the automatic program recording. If the prolongation of reserved program is expected, the user must cope with the situation by setting an ending time as the time containing a maximum possible time for prolongation taken into consideration at the time of recording reservation.
In addition, the user must set a magnetic tape in a video recorder after visually confirming the remaining length of the magnetic tape, which is mainly used as the recording medium, and must decide whether recording of a desired program is possible on the remaining tape. Although some video recorders are provided with a warning function as to the amount of remaining tape at the time of recording reservation or a function for completing the recording of a reserved program by automatically lowering the grade of recording resolution when remaining capacity of a tape becomes short, still, it has been rather difficult to record a desired program completely when the broadcasting time of the program is changed or unexpectedly lengthened.
As a recording medium, disks which are capable of random access, such as CD-R or DVD-RAM, have lately attracted considerable attention. When time series data, such as video or audio, is recorded on such a disk capable of random access, data is recorded continuously from the beginning of the unused area toward the end after recorded data is reduced and unused capacity is confirmed beforehand using an authoring tool. For additional recording, data is also recorded in a similar manner.
Even when data is recorded on such a disk capable of random access, similarly to a case where recording is done on a tape, it is necessary to confirm the total amount of data before recording. For example, recording is presumed to be carried out after data to be recorded has been stored in another mass storage medium such as a magnetic disk unit. In a word, it was impossible to cope with circumstances such as reserved recording of a broadcast program, the data rate of which is variable and broadcasting time of which is changeable, or instantaneous recording which may stop recording any time.